For Name's Sake!
by Bartimus Crotchety
Summary: Luna Lovegood, the freaky girl who nobody understood, has a handsome fiance, a successful career, and has found peace with herself. Answering a summons to St. Mungos, she receives an honor she never expected, finding that life sometimes comes full circle.


These are all JK's characters. Not mine. I came up with this story when I found out that Harry's little girl was Lily Luna. I thought, _what would have happened when this singular personality finds out that someone is named for her?_ _What issues would this bring out in one who lost her mother young, and has been such an outcast in her life?_ This is my take. I hope you Luna lovers won't burn me at the stake!! Seriously please don't hurt me!

**Bart**

* * *

**For Name's Sake!**

The waiting room at St. Mungo's was pandemonium as usual; all sorts of madness and maladies, and maladies of madness. To Luna, it all seemed like sweet music directed by a brilliant conductor who belonged in a padded room. She looked around, fingering her anti-Nargle bracelet nervously. It was only for the sake of Harry and Ginny that she had set foot here at all. There, in the corner, were some familiar faces. She felt her face settle into her usual vapid smile as she made her way over.

"Aunt Looney!" came a chorus of squeaky little voices. Running over to her were Fred, age six, and a four-year-old James. Little three-year-old Rose and her best pal and cousin, Albus, hung back against the wall.

"Lil Fred and Serious James," she called as she kneeled to be on their level.

They both stopped when she opened her arms for a hug, and gave her a familiar, calculating look.

Luna settled back. "Okay, what's the going price for a hug these days, boys?" she asked in mock exasperation.

Fred and James grinned as an agreement was passed between them. "A chocolate frog and two strawberry licorice wands each," Fred replied as he and James got that greedy glint in their eyes.

Luna sighed and reached into her purse, acting as though she were rummaging. In truth she practically had a candy store in her enlargement-charmed purse, but she wasn't going tell the boys. Finally, she pulled out the negotiated items and as they reached, she dangled them. "Hug first, I don't trust you two."

It wasn't long before she had the two boys hugging her neck. Of course, as soon as her grip loosened, they shot off, clutching their prizes, to a corner filled with redheaded relatives; she didn't know all of them. George and Angelina waved, and so did Neville and Hannah Longbottom.

"Rosita and Albino," she called, beckoning to the other two patiently waiting children.

They came to be hugged without the promise of candy. And they stayed longer; Luna did like these two! She grinned from between the bushy-little auburn haired girl, and the cowlicked little boy; this was the best thing about being Aunt Looney.

"And a kiss!" she instructed. They complied, she rummaged in her purse and winked as she gave them both two chocolate frogs and three Strawberry wands each.

"That's between us," she murmured as they both joined her in locking their lips with imaginary keys, which they mimed throwing away.

They ran to their own corner away from Fred and James to eat their candy. She followed them over to where Hermione and Ron were seated.

Hermione was very pregnant, to the extent that Luna thought she should just stay put at St. Mungo's. She was looking through a document and making changes, while Ron, one arm around her, played wizard chess using a board spelled to play the other side automatically. He looked up after Rose and Albus whizzed by rattling candy wrappers.

"Hey, Luna," he called lazily, looking back to his board as his bishop got its tiny head bashed in by a rampaging knight. "Hey now, I wasn't looking!" he grumbled.

Hermione set the pages to the side. "Hey Luna! How's Rolf and your search for Snorkacks going?"

Luna knew the first question was the one she really wanted answered, Hermione thought her searches for mythical creatures was eccentric at best.

"Rolf is fine, and we've got a lead on a Crumpled-Horn Snorkack in the Forest of Dale!" she exclaimed.

Hermione's eyes rolled just a tad. She was getting better at hiding her annoyance. The effort she put into hiding it was the reason Luna called her a friend.

"So when are you and Rolf going to catch up to the rest of us?" Ron blurted absentmindedly, unwittingly giving Luna an opening, which Hermione tried in vain to close.

"He means, when are you two getting married?" she rushed, not wanting a detailed account of Luna's love life. Luna was a little bit annoyed; she had been about to recount the attempts she and Rolf had recently made to "catch up" in a certain grove of myrtle trees, but oh well.

"Actually, he proposed last week, it was very romantic, for Rolf. We've been talking about a Forbidden Forest wedding. I was hoping you'd be one of my bridesmaids, actually."

Hermione's lips pressed into a thin line. "Forbidden Forest?"

"Oh yes, the trees make a lovely canopy, and we're going to invite some centaurs! Then we thought we'd just hike on in afterwards for a working honeymoon."

Hermione once again made a huge effort. "Sounds...lovely. Have you decided on colors?"

Luna's eyes rolled back for a moment. "Oh yes; sunflower yellow for joy, royal purple for prosperity, and acid green for fertility."

She grinned as she watched Hermione try to muster up some fake excitement through her dread. "How lovely," she managed to murmur.

Luna's plans were actually for a Hogwarts castle wedding and her colors were actually traditional white, royal purple and dusty rose, but she loved watching that wrinkle form between Hermione's eyes as she contemplated horrific bridesmaid dresses.

Ron made a move on his board. "Harry and Ginny wanted you to come up to see the baby as soon as you arrived," he stated offhandedly.

"Splendid!" Luna replied with a dreamy smile. "I love babies ever so much."

She paused just long enough to register the alarm that crept onto Hermione's face before she started toward the Information Witch's desk.

The maternity ward was located on the second floor? That was the last place Luna ever wanted to visit, but she ambled on by. Before she got to her destination, she passed by a familiar door.

It belonged to the Rastiline Cast-Arry Severe Spell Damage Ward.

Memories crept back unbidden. The cries of pain and unearthly howls, growls and begs for mercy, as she made her way, her little hand grasped in her dad's.

Luna hadn't been home the day it'd happened; she'd been visiting her aunt. It was a good thing, too, considering that the explosion had reduced half the house to rubble.

_There, in the last bed, pumped up with enough painkiller potion as to be nearly lethal, meaning there was no more hope, was her mother._

_Half of her thick blonde, hair was missing and one side of her body was covered with pustules and severe burns. But when she smiled, it was her mother._

_"Come here," she called out voice weak, Luna came over and sat on the side that was still mostly whole._

_"Give us a kiss," her mother whispered._

_Luna bent down and kissed her cheek, and accepted a dry kiss in return. Before her mother let her pull back, she stared into her daughter's eyes. "I want you to promise me something, Lu."_

_"Anything, Mum." Luna almost choked on the words._

_She smiled one last time. "I want you to promise me that you'll believe...everything."_

_Luna nodded solemnly._

_Her mother's hands dropped; the effort to impart to her daughter one last bit of wisdom had used the rest of her reserves, and she was gone._

_Luna wasn't hysterical, she just stood and walked over to the window, staring out into the foggy London sky. It was the first time she saw a thestral fly. It was thin and skeletal and circling a tall building in the near distance. It had such freedom and a grandeur as it swooped and climbed. Her mum had told her what they looked like and claimed to see them, but Luna had never been convinced they were real._

_She made a silent promise as she stared at the winged cadaverous horse in the sky, to her mum now beyond it, "I promise, Mum. I will believe everything."  
_

And she had, no matter how preposterous. She had placed her faith in the unseen, the ridiculous, and the nutty. It had earned her ridicule, but it had given her a perspective of the world as a place of wonder and possibility. In her forth year at Hogwarts it had given her the most wonderful friends a freaky little girl could ever have. And finally, it had given her a handsome, rugged man who saw things the same way she did.

She made her way to the end of the hallway and took a left into the Bertha P. Storkfeather Maternity Ward.

She walked through the ward filled with exhausted mothers, wounded fathers, and crying babies. As indicated by a helpful healer, surrounded by curtains for privacy, she found a tired Ginny resting comfortably, holding Harry's hand with her right, and cradling a bundle with her left.

Harry looked white like he had just been through an ordeal himself, but he found the energy for a lopsided smile as soon as he saw her.

"Alright there, Luna?" he asked quietly.

Ginny smiled, "We were hoping you would get here."

Luna crinkled her nose at them. "Well, if you two keep popping out the children, I can't get any work done in Albania!" she said with mock exasperation. "I know you two are in love, but can you keep your hands off each other for at lease three years next time."

They both gave her the rude look she deserved, but then they were all smiles.

"Boy or girl?" Luna asked.

"A little girl, actually," replied Ginny, and Harry just beamed.

"We named her Lily Luna Potter," he stated finally after exchanging a look with his wife.

Luna blinked. "Well, I know Lily was your mother's name, but what in Merlin's name possessed you to give her the name Luna?" she demanded.

They both just stared at her meaningfully.

"Oh!" Luna exclaimed after a few moments. "I don't know what to say."

Ginny exchanged a glance with Harry. "Say you'll be her Godmother, for one."

Luna thought the surprises were at an end, but her heart skipped a beat, "Godmother? Me?"

"You," Harry agreed. "We named her for you because we want her to be free to be herself and as a Potter that's not going to be easy. We couldn't think of anyone as free and herself as you are."

"Speaking of which," Luna declared suddenly, "I've got something for the little lady!"

She reached into her purse rummaged among all the candy, reference books, spare broom, gurdy root charms, Nargle detectors, and a Wizard camera to find the object she had stashed in there earlier.

She pulled out a stuffed and rather alarming toy thestral with spelled glowing red eyes.

Harry and Ginny looked at each other. The soft little toy was somehow scary, hideous, and adorable all at the same time.

"I'm not sure she should have that just yet, Luna. It might give her nightmares," Ginny said finally.

"Well," Luna exclaimed softly, "if all my wishes for her come true, this will be the only way she will ever see one."

Harry squeezed Ginny's hand as the significance of Luna's words soaked in. "Well, we'll let her decide if it scares her or not, okay?" he stated cautiously.

Luna smiled. "Great! Can I hold my little goddaughter? It's tradition to pronounce a blessing, isn't it?"

Ginny moved and Harry gently took the sleeping little girl. He seemed a little surprised when Luna accepted her and knew exactly how to hold an infant. She looked as though she had been doing it for years.

She raised the little curly red-haired infant up to the side so Harry and Ginny could see her as she spoke to the precious little sleeping face. "My little Lily Luna," she crooned, "May you always know peace, even when the world isn't peaceful, and may you always, always, believe...everything!"


End file.
